This game was unusual for a random in that the two teams had half of the map each, which I consider to be the optimal distribution for a random.

Auqia as Advent and Higgy as Advent had the inside spots for their team, with DaKnife as Advent outside Auqia and ManiacGonzo as TEC outside Higgy.  KBroke as TEC and Dwish as Vasari had the inside spots for their team, with HowThe outside KBroke and StarPlayer outside Dwish.  With the poorer players in the feed spots this setup might have favoured StarPlayers team, however Dwish's sector was fairly poor in terms of planets.

At the bottom of the map ManiacGonzo decided on a curious Kol opening, made five hangars at his home before taking his roid, and also made only a feeble attempt to attack the ice planet adjacent to his home before StarPlayer chased him away.  This left ManiacGonzo fairly weak throughout the game.  However in his defence he was able to remain in the game, and he was probably worried that StarPlayer would take him out early. 

At the top of the map HowThe took a volcanic betwen them away from DaKnife but then opted to expand toward the centre rather than make a direct attack on DaKnife, so that when the two did clash again it was at a volcanic owned by Auqia, who had already expanded past it into the opposing half of the map.  This caused HowThe to call for help from KBroke who responded with impressive numbers of Cobalts.

HowThe clearly considered the volcanic a key position, though he was unable to take it due to Auqia's culture, and because Auqia had already expanded past it Auqia was able to take one of KBroke's planets and also raid Dwish, while bring his fleet back to contest the volcanic.  DaKnife's home and core planets, undefended by starbases or any other defences or fleet, were only a dead asteroid away from HowThe's territory and it would have been very hard for Auqia to get into position to support DaKnife there.  However, HowThe was able to wear down DaKnife's fleet at the volcanic despite Auqia's interventions.

With the game coming down to attrition after Dwish and Higgy moved up to support their respective allies at the bottom, economies became important.  Here KBroke was a clear leader, feeding twice as much as Higgy, who was himself able to feed twice as much as Dwish.  Auqia's feed was less than that of Dwish.   With ManiacGonzo very weak if not fed and Kbroke able to field more fleet than Auqia, this meant that StarPlaye's team had a clear advantage when the game ended, even though they had not yet translated it into any great advantage in terms of planets.

However the manner in which the game ended was painful, with the game clearly lagging heavily and HowThe and StarPlayer repeatedly demanding that ManiacGonzo quit.  So even a game with an even distribution of players and planets and no-one roided, and with no disconnections, is still ruined because the concept of the game was inappropriate for the players involved.  Everyone who started must have known that the game would lag if it went past an hour, and to blame one player in deeply unfair.

A classic example of why Sins is best played as 2s and 3s on set maps rather than as 4s and 5s on random 5s maps.  A best-of-three with Aquia and Higgy versus HowThe and StarPlayer would make a great set of replays.  With a set map or a custom there would be no danger of a player being roided, or of the severe imbalances that a random 2s map can produce.  And it wouldn't lag.

Sins was much livelier and more fun before the vast 5s PUGs took over the game. 

I wish that we had a x16 and a x32 viewing speed for replays, that would definitely make them watchable.

Iron/dock!!!! Get on it.

I understand that, it's just that I don't really have the time, nor do many other players have the time to watch an hour or multiple hours of gametime.

Well if you say that you find 4s and 5s on huge maps more fun then that is incontestable.  However I would still point out that you clearly weren't enjoying the end of this game.  Do randoms have to be on huge maps for the randomness experience to begin?

While on some custom or set maps the best strategies might well be quickly discovered, the process of seeing the top players find those strategies in a best-of-three game would be very instructive.  Also it is not beyond the community to produce new maps once the limitations of existing ones are discovered.

Also, it would be very difficult to get a best-of-three series on a 4s or 5s.  It is difficult enough to find sufficient competent players, never mind sufficient players of equal calibre.  Matches solely between the top Sins players are as rare as gold dust.  You are one of the few top players to ever provide replays of this type to my knowledge.  Can the top players be so addicted to 5s of varying quality that they won't play head-to-head against each other in 1s 2s and 3s once a week or so?

It's not that I've always been down on random maps, when I first made custom maps they were of the home-roid-ice/volcanic type with the rest of the map pure random.  You can still download those maps from this site.  I just consider the more complete maps I made later to be far better, despite the inequality of militia and extractors, which may make a difference but the differences are not as significant as the random problems, especially for the smaller maps.. which don't lag, and everyone hates lag.  I hate lag more than losing!